1. Technical Field
This disclosure is directed to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to controlling the flow of transactions having various priority levels in integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many modern integrated circuits (ICs) include on-chip communications networks of various types. Such on-chip networks may include buses and other types of links between various functional units of an IC. Networks may be implemented as crossbar networks, communications fabrics, or other type of network topology.
Since there are a number of different functional units that may compete for access to resources in an on-chip network, arbitration is often used to determine which functional unit obtains access to a given resource. Various types of arbitration schemes may be used. In some cases, transactions sent through the network may be designated as one of a number of different transaction types. Different transaction types may be associated with different priority levels. Priority levels of the arbitrated transactions may be used as a factor in determining which transaction eventually wins the arbitration. However, other factors may also be considered during arbitration so that traffic through the on-chip network may flow in a timely and orderly manner.